Musings

Okay, the infestation is spreading. This plant is about 1.5 meters from the one in the picture yesterday.

It’s east. But I don’t think this means anything about the prevailing wind.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Be safe!

’Tis milkweed season, and this infestation is taking advantage of…something. Two kinds of insects, and I’m not sure of their relationship, or their relationship to the milkweed they’re inhabiting. There are many milkweeds flourishing in the orchard, but this is the only one (well, and now its neighbors) that is hosting these insects.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

Several times I’ve enjoyed puffball steaks, and it looks like it’s time to do so again. Ya just pick the globular beast, remove non-edibles (leaves, grass, soil), and sauté thick slices in a skillet—in butter if you can go cholesterol deluxe, creating fungi fun!

In figuring scale, remember the model has size 15s.

Posted at 2:19 PM | 1 Comment »

The view is east. From the bathroom. And this morning fairly early I saw a couple-spike buck still in velvet on the mowed area just a few feet away. He moseyed on, walking funny—couldn’t tell if it was a limp or something wrong with his hips. My eyes lifted to the sky. Clouds obscured to still-low sun, with nice cloud layers portending a fine sunrise, from the right angles. I finished my personal business and grabbed the Big Cam and headed down to the beach, stepping high to try to keep the drops remaining from yesterday’s rain from penetrating to my toes. Didn’t work. Still, the view of the lake from the bluff was terrific.

I descended and walked to the end of the dock (TY, M&D), and soaked in the views. To the southeast were three loons keeping company, and maybe doing a toned down version of the circling we observed earlier this year. Soon I heard loon calls from east around the point in the photograph and to the southwest, as well as from the trio. I even managed to record a bit of it. (Not being as talented and experienced as KW, I offer you the story and not an audio or video clip.)

Anyway, while I was soaking and didn’t have the camera stuck to my face, I saw a very large bird arrive in silhouette fluttering his/her wings to land on one of the dead branches you see poking skyward on the end of the point. Cra-a-ack, I heard, and the wings fluttered and the big feathered shape disappeared back along the shore to the east as a dead limb fell into the center of the very tree you’re looking at above. S/he returned maybe 4-5 minutes later and fluttered, but did not land, perhaps remembering distant times when this was a good spot to fish from, and also remembering the perils of the previous landing attempt.

Posted at 4:28 PM | 2 Comments »

Locally speaking, good ol’ Newberry offers stores, services for a pretty good-sized area. Regionally, it’s a medium-sized town.

The hardware store (on the hill) is pretty advanced, however, as evidenced by the Radio Shack room in the back and this new (to me) Stormy Kromer display.

I write this offline from my undisclosed location in the boonies, so you’ll have to discover more on Stormy Kromer on your own, although I will tell you that I have noted a personal friend’s SK-ness previously on this blahggg.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Newberry surprise

Here’s the very same bellflower (Campanula spp., perhaps the common garden bellflower C. rapunculoides) taken this morning; note the almost complete absence of the “hairs” I saw three mornings ago.

Clear, almost cloudless sky this morning. Heavy dew still drenches my shoes if I wander out much before noon. Life is good.

Posted at 10:36 AM | 1 Comment »

I think this is a bellflower (Campanula spp.), perhaps the common garden bellflower (C. rapunculoides). Photo taken on the morning of the 12th; note the “hairs” on the petal margins.

We’re very much enjoying the dramatic effects of early-day and late-day horizontal light.

I take it as a very good sign that a flat-bed duallie (never seen it spelled out) delivered shingles and Stuff (including nails and roofing paper) this afternoon.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Light amusement

I am fascinated by the interplay of light on webs—is this my Charlotte the Spider connection?

From yesterday’s walk; too lovely to not post, especially since we made today a Chore Day, and eradicated much dust—and not a few cobwebs—from our aged cottage interior.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Aesthetic webs

Bright sunshine left us little choice; we packed snacks and headed up to Lake Superior, which we found glittering in the sun with glorious small waves providing the best white noise that I’ve ever found.

We visited a stretch of beach I haven’t been to in years, at the mouth of Sable Creek. Like most of these north-flowing creeks, it’s a lovely light brown, tinted by the cedars growing along its path.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on White noise of LS

Okay, one more picture from yesterday’s outdoor lake-side wedding (too overcast and grey out—and, whoops!, now rainy—for a nice photo today): the bride’s after-dark-by-the-campfire-wear included these stunning over-the-knee stockings….

The stockings came from a Left Coast (more-or-less) store that sells only socks!

Enough hyphens for ya?

Posted at 1:55 PM | Comments Off on She’s a trip!